About this blog

Beer in Poland has come a long way in a few short years. At the start of 2012, I would literally cross Warsaw just to drink draught Perła; now Perła is the minimum quality I'll think about drinking (anything worse and I’ll just have water thanks). Everything changed at ‎half past nine on 31 ‎August ‎2012 with my first bottle of Rowing Jack in Setka in Poznan. Welcome to the Polish beer revolution. But even then Warsaw had zero multi-tap bars and wouldn’t get any until the middle of the next year.
Fast forward to today and there are 42 multi-tap bars listed for Warsaw on ontap.pl (and at least six that aren’t). Astoundingly, there were 1,164 new beers launched in Poland in 2015, including 238 IPAs and 257 other ales. 57 new breweries debuted in 2015 and there were 13 new beer festivals. And this year is shaping up to be even bigger!

But there’s still very little being written about the Polish beer revolution in any language other than Polish, which means it’s hard for people who don’t speak Polish to find out about what to drink here, and where to drink it. This blog wants that to change. And if this blogger needs to sample a large number of beers to change it, I’ll take one for the team. Unfortunately I’m a long long way from being an expert on beer, so if you want technical discussions of hop profiles, this might not be the blog for you. But beer with me, things can only get better: beer in Poland certainly is getting better.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Down by the river

Image
Not so long ago, the Wisła banks were best avoided on summer evenings, unless your idea of fun is cans of warm Zywiec and a punch-up. However, over the last couple of years a range of seasonal bars have opened and deck-chairs have had their usual civilising effect. But, if you’ve got a taste for good beer, are there any good choices? Walking down from the pl Zamkowy and turning left onto the promenade, the first place you come to is ZygZak . It’s a steel structure with less than comfortable stools lining both sides of the long bar and a second floor over the bar area with stairs you can walk up to discover the staff haven’t bothered putting any seats up there. ZygZak: OK, I could have seen the lack of seating up there   There are four taps, all of which should serve beer from the Maryensztadt brewery, including some which are found only here and the bar next door. But at five o’clock on a Saturday afternoon only two of the four taps were hooked up, so the choice was betw...
Read more

Wola and Bemowo (part one)

Image
It’s easy to forget how far Warsaw has come on its beer journey. From having no multi-tap bars four years ago, there are now more than fifty of the things. They’re even popping up in the suburbs. Inspired by the map function on the utterly excellent  ontap.pl , we booked an Uber to the wilds of Wola with a route plotted out to deepest darkest Bemowo. Yes, it is easy to miss First stop was Beczka Chmielu Pub at Wolska 89. Behind the unassuming single-window shop front that’s all too easy to miss is this smallish place: just seven seats in the front room, along with a small fridge and a short, rather low bar that’s clearly intended for ordering at rather than propping up. But behind that bar are eleven taps, Polish and Lithuanian beers and a cider, all at prices a notch or two lower than city centre bars. The decor is also fairly simple and low key, lots of exposed brick work and retro orange lights, a theme continued into the larger back room which has seats for about 30 peo...
Read more

Craft Beer Muranow

Image
Open at last! After months of riding past what was once Warsaw’s premier (mostly by virtue of being only) Nigerian restaurant and wondering when, or even if, Craft Beer Muranow was finally going to open, a couple of weeks ago they finally poured their first pint. But has it been worth the wait? So far the signs are very promising indeed. Two floors of drinking space It’s hard to know how the place compares to what used to be here, largely because I’m only very slightly more likely to be seen eating goat curry than I am to be spotted swigging a can of Zywiec while Satan skates to work. Walking in you get a sense of space from the double-height space at the front with a mezzanine floor off to your right. The fake exposed brickwork isn’t exactly to my taste but it’s not like I have much of that anyway. The bar is somewhat hidden in the corner, which makes getting near it something of a challenge on busy nights, especially with the stairs and various other structural bits g...
Read more